Children of Oblivion
by KitsunePhantom09
Summary: [Other Franchises referenced] A mysterious dragon has whisked a random group of teens into an anime world with hopes the Crimson Dragon will fall. With the power of several different worlds in the palms of their hands, this new group is bound to make this new storyline one to remember.
1. Chapter I

"This is way too weird to be a coincidence."

I rub my right forearm and nod in agreement. A large, vibrant purple bruise-like thing has appeared on not only my arm, but the arms of my friends, both near and far away. The one to speak is Brittany, my waifu. She's the shortest of our group, being somewhere around 5'. She's very 'fluffy' compared to me, but I like her that way. She's currently wearing grey sneakers, a gray tee shirt and blue jeans, her black glasses, and her shoulder-length blonde hair is tucked behind her ears. She's also the youngest at fifteen.

Sitting next to her is Dani, the oldest of us at eighteen. Her dark brown hair is shorter than Brittany's and is tipped with blonde. She's got the darkest skin, but it's more of a sun-kissed dark than race dark. Her clothes consist of denim shorts, black converse, and a red tee with white embroidery all over the front. Dani's more heavy set and shorter than I am, but slimmer and taller than Brittany.

Nate is on the other side of me, across from Dani. He's an seventeen-year-old Asian-American with a darker skintone than my olive, but is much lighter than Dani (Brittany's pale as heck). He's recently shaved his head, and is in his normal outfit of black jeans, a black-and-grey hooded jacket, and black sneakers. He also wears glasses, but they're plain and black.

"Yeah," Dani says. "It's not normal, but what are they, and why do we have them?" No one has a real answer, so we all head for the Web for one. Nothing pops up that has a cement connection, so we just start throwing ideas at the wall. Nate suggests that an assassin has been hired to kill the lot of us, and went and marked us for death. Dani and Brittany say that a spellcaster has cursed us and these marks are the first telltale sign.

"Well, as amusing and paranoia-inducing as these thoughts are," I say. "I really don't want to ponder about it too much."

"What?" Brittany asks. "You have an amazing imagination!" I blush a little. "Why not theorize?"

I shrug. "Because that's all it will be - theories and imaginary scenarios. I kind of want to leave it to surprise me." My friends murmur responses, and I take out my iPod touch to message my online friend, Ethan. Though I've never seen him - we live in different states - we're good friends and have helped each other through painful things. He's told me about a large purple bruise on his right arm, so I quickly fill him in and tell him he's not alone.

 **godzillafan21** :so this is a thing?

 **KitsunePhantom09** : Yeah, I guess. At least we're in this together, huh?

 **godzillafan21** : should i be scared?

 **KitsunePhantom09** : Yeah. Probably. Be very afraid.

For a majority of the day, the marks didn't do anything for anyone. They were just blotches of color on our skin. But, when twilight fell, my bruise started hurting. "Ow," I mutter, holding my arm close. It's throbbing underneath my flesh, a bone rattling ache that burns through my muscles and makes the skin tender to the touch.

I retreat to my bedroom with my old dachshund Gizmo at my side, and sit on the bed. Gizmo jumps onto the bed by using the toy chest my sisters rarely use and cuddles up beside me, wary of my affected arm. She whines and nuzzles me, and that raises a red flag. Dogs are supposedly more sensitive to supernatural phenomenon than humans, so, is she sensing something I'm blind to?

"What is it, baby puppy?" I asks, letting her crawl into my lap. She sits and places her paws on my breasts to balance herself, whining louder now, which only confuses me more. "What?" I repeat, louder. "I don't understand. What's wrong?"

As if that question was set as a cue, the oddly-colored flesh on my right arm comes alive with an imaginary fire, and I scream in return. I cradle my arm, though it doesn't stop the burning, and chew on various parts inside my mouth to keep quiet. Gizmo barks and howls, able to tell I'm in serious pain but unable to do anything about it. The burning begins to focus and move, like someone's drawing on my arm with a blowtorch or rubbing near-molten metal against it. I groan against the inside of my mouth, refusing to make even more loud noises, until the pain vanishes and gets replaced with a gracious cooling sensation.

I sigh as the cool chases away the pain and burning, and hold up my arm to survey the damage. Instead of burnt flesh, it's actually a pretty marking now, looking like a backwards 'c' with sharp angles and spikes, and a smaller, thinner version inside it. The lines are bold and a deeper, more regal shade of purple than the bruise it formed from. A familiar sight comes to mind, and I gasp and sit up quickly, startling Gizmo off my lap. A small noise emits from my iPod repeatedly, alerting me to certain people's messages. I retrieve my device and look at the first few words of the messages.

 **zebra3778** : OMG did you feel that pain?!

 **snakeminigun** : Holy shit, what was that!?

 **bluelily** : WTF just happened?!

 **godzillafan21** : Carol? did anything happen to you just now?

With vigor, I send out a group message via KiK.

 **KitsunePhantom09** : I see we have several similar experiences…

 **bluelily** : dude, I barely avoided being sent to the hospital!

 **snakeminigun** : so, we all had that wicked pain happen?

 **zebra3778** : pretty much.

 **godzillafan21** : does anyone else have a weird tattoo on their arms?

At this, I snap a picture of my 'tattoo' and post it, prompting the others to do the same. Dani posts one looking like a tribal drawing of a predator's hind leg. Brittany posts a pair of wings connected to a pair of smaller ones. Nate has a dragon's head. Ethan has a clawed hand.

And I almost drop the device in shock.

I recognize these marks. I know exactly what they're from and why they shouldn't exist.

 **KitsunePhantom09** : Alright guys. I have some news and a bit of a confession.

 **KitsunePhantom09** : I know what these marks are.

 **zebra3778** : what?!

 **snakeminigun** : how?

 **bluelily** : you didn't say anything before!

 **KitsunePhantom09** : I didn't know what they were before. Now that I've seen them for what they truly are, I can say what they are - marks of an Aztec deity.

I don't get a response right away, so I launch into the story behind them - how they were featured in an anime I love, that they were bestowed by Quetzalcoatl, and that they weren't supposed to be purple, but red. Thunder rolls outside my window, so I quickly tell them to sleep on it and meet up tomorrow (except for Ethan, because he can't exactly do that) and sign off to let the iPod charge before we have an inevitable power outage. It's about ten at night, so I resign to calming Gizmo and curling up under the comforter, with a few questions swirling around in my head.


	2. Chapter II

I sit idly at the normal table outside Dairy Queen, waiting for the others to arrive. Brittany's already here and idly doodling on a notebook; I'm finishing a picture of Shiny Giratina in Altered Forme and watching the purple glow of my mark bring the creature to life. The Renegade Pokemon roars into my mind and flaps its wings before looking up at the upper left corner, where Brittany's notebook overlaps my sketchbook. I follow its gaze, and I know what it's doing before it moves. The Pokemon flies up and through the barrier to appear on the lined paper, earning a squawk of indignation. It roars at Brittany, spins to show itself, then flies back to its home page, leaving little stars in its wake.

"What?! How-?"

I point to my mark, which I wound up drawing on the sketchbook. "I think it's a power I've got from this," I explain. "But, if this deity originates from the anime I'm assuming it does, then I can do more than just make drawings have a mind of their own."

Our conversation's cut short when a horrible, scratchy noise is emitted right in our ears, and we both shriek in fear while I fling a fist backwards. Someone catches my wrist with ease, and I instantly know who it is. "NATE!"

The teen busts out laughing and Brittany tries to hit him too, so he lets go of me to defend himself from the onslaught. Dani's not far behind, and she motions for me to start. "A'ight," I reply. "Okay, so. The deity has some sort of connection to an anime deity called the Crimson Dragon."

"Right."

"Okay."

"So you said."

"That Dragon is from a world where card games solve practically everything," I continue.

"Cool!"

"Well, I like this already!"

"Count me in!"

"Does anyone know how to Synchro Summon in Yu-Gi-Oh?" I raise a brow

Silence.

"Alright," I sigh. "I was expecting this. So, Brittany and Dani, I'm going to give you guys a refresher/rundown of types of cards by using Magic the Gathering to help. There are Monsters, Field Spells, Traps, normal Spells, and Speed Spells. There are several kinds of monsters - Fusion, Ritual, Tribute, Synchro, Tuner and normal monsters. You can only Normal Summon once a turn, but you have an unlimited amount of Special Summons."

"What count as Special Summons?"

"Everything other than Normal Summoning," I reply. "Fusion is self-explanatory; Ritual means you have to have a special Spell card and may have to meet other requirements. Tribute is where you sacrifice monsters to bring out others. Now," I pause and make sure I've got their attention - Nate started spacing out. "This is the new crap. Tuner and Synchro monsters are very close because you need Tuners to get Synchros. It's kind of like Fusion, because it puts two or more monsters together into a better monster, but the catch is that all the used monsters' levels have to add up exactly to the desired Synchro monster's level." I get a few nods. "Alright, well, for you girls, Trap Cards are a lot like Instants in MtG - except, you have to have them face down on your field to activate them. In Duel Monsters, you don't have Mana/Lands. Spell Cards are the equivalent to Sorcery Cards; play them only on your turn. Your Deck is the Library, but the Graveyard should be the same. You can also banish cards in both."

Quickly, excited talk sprouts from all three friends, and I look back down at the still active Renegade dragon, with text slowly forming below it.

 **Giratina lvl. 10 DARK-Attribute**

Dragon/Synchro/Effect 3600/4000

 _ **1 Tuner + 2**_ _**or more DARK monsters**_

 _Cannot be destroyed by card effects. Once per turn: You can discard two cards; destroy all cards on the opponent's side of the field. Inflict 400 points damage for each card destroyed by this effect._

I smile as Shiny Giratina transforms to its Origin Forme, but it's lost the shiny coloring in favor of its menacing normal palette. I look back up when the small talk stops, and feel someone breathing down my neck. "Impressed?" I ask with some sarcasm, and I vaguely see Dani and Nate nod as they continue to stare at the lively drawn dragon.

A little later, we pooled our pocket change to buy Blizzards to eat. As Dani drives us around to find something fun to do, I sketch Palkia, the second dragon of the Creation Trio (Dialga and Giratina are the other two). The messy sketch attempts to move, especially when Giratina comes to see, but it's doing something equal to glitching out. "Hey," I say softly, "You need to calm down. If you keep freaking out like this, I can't finish you." The dragon-to-be stills, and I bring out a black gel pen to make some lines permanent.

It's not a long peaceful drive, because these Aztec symbols soon start to light up brightly, bathing the vehicle's interior in a deep purple. It doesn't hurt at all, but Dani quickly pulls off the main road just in case. Forced to leave Palkia uncolored, but in ink, I close the sketchbook and gaze at my right arm. "Carol?" I look up to Brittany. "You know the most about these things. What are they doing?"

I look back at the mark. "There are several reasons as to why they'd glow. Either there's something unnatural nearby, another Signer's in trouble, or the deity that marked us is about to make an appearance. If it's something unnatural, we need to leave. I don't see a dragon anywhere." We all search the environment. "The only other option is actually plausible, though."

"What? How?"

I frown deeply. "We're not all here. Ethan, my online friend, said he has a mark, too. It may be trying to tell us he's in trouble."

"Where is he?"

I put my arm down. "That's the thing about talking to people online - never give out personal information. All I know is that he's not in Ohio, but in the United States in general." I frown, deeply concerned for Ethan. My Soul mark grows brighter in response, and flashes of a foreign environment. I can't see anything definite, and I'm pulled back to myself when I'm shaken.

"Carol, what happened?" Nate asks quickly. "Your eyes went completely white and glowed!"

"Sight Sharing?" I offer, recalling a Pokemon movie that featured this ability. "I think I was seeing through Ethan's eyes. I couldn't make anything out clearly, but I think he was running."

Our marks grow brighter still, and I can feel and weird sensation like the feeling I got after the mark had been carved onto my arm. An echoing, beautiful cry rents the air mere moments before a swirling purple and silver energy consumes my vision, then my consciousness.


End file.
